{"id":10178,"date":"2023-10-03T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=10178"},"modified":"2023-09-22T14:15:29","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T14:15:29","slug":"like-many-women-i-didnt-know-i-was-autistic-until-adulthood-how-late-diagnosis-can-hurt-mental-health-and-self-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/like-many-women-i-didnt-know-i-was-autistic-until-adulthood-how-late-diagnosis-can-hurt-mental-health-and-self-image\/","title":{"rendered":"Like many women, I didn\u2019t know I was autistic until adulthood \u2013 how late diagnosis can hurt mental health and self image"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n \n Dagerotip\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nRachel Moseley<\/a>, Bournemouth University<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

For many women, adult diagnoses of autism are \u201ca light in the darkness\u201d<\/a>, an epiphany of self-understanding. My \u201clightbulb moment\u201d came in my late 20s. \u201cThey thought you were autistic,\u201d my mum mused when I told her I was embarking on an academic career in autism research. <\/p>\n\n

As a child, I was painfully aware of being different. The adults and the children around me had noticed my strangeness, my inability to fit in. It turned out that autism had been suggested to my mother \u2013 but then dismissed by a child psychiatrist. I didn\u2019t fit what was known about autism. Although socially gauche, I\u2019d mastered eye contact and was fairly eloquent.<\/p>\n\n

A few years after my mum had made that off-the-cuff comment, I was re-evaluating my life in the context of a shiny new diagnosis. <\/p>\n\n

Researchers are learning more and more about the way autism differs in people of different sexes and genders. As they do so, the lights are coming on for more of us who\u2019ve felt lost in the world<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

The female face of autism<\/h2>\n\n

There is no one type of autistic person. The key features of autism \u2013 differences in the way we think, communicate and interact with others \u2013 show up in more diverse and subtle ways than the limited examples suggested by the diagnostic criteria. This is often true in autistic girls. <\/p>\n\n

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\n <\/span>\n \n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

This article is part of Women\u2019s Health Matters<\/a>, a series about the health and wellbeing of women and girls around the world. From menopause to miscarriage, pleasure to pain the articles in this series will delve into the full spectrum of women\u2019s health issues to provide valuable information, insights and resources for women of all ages.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

You may be interested in:<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Women still feel like they aren\u2019t listened to when they give birth \u2013 here\u2019s what could help change things<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n

Birth trauma is a growing problem \u2014 experiencing it myself revealed how few people understand it<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n

Science experiments traditionally only used male mice \u2013 here\u2019s why that\u2019s a problem for women\u2019s health<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n

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While they struggle with social understanding, many autistic girls are adept mimics of the social behaviour of other people. In the way they speak and the things they talk about, they are more similar<\/a> to neurotypical children than autistic boys are. This may explain why, on first impression, people tend to underestimate autistic girls\u2019 difficulties<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

In comparison to autistic boys, the conversation of autistic girls tends to be more social in nature<\/a>, focusing more on the people and friendship groups around them. Their interests tend to be more social<\/a>, involving fictional characters, animals or celebrities rather than non-living objects. Tellingly, they express greater longing for the friendships and relationships<\/a> which often elude them. <\/p>\n\n

As they grow, some girls learn scripts to use in social situations, and develop a passive way of behaving<\/a> with others that focuses on making the other person feel comfortable. Many autistic girls and women engage in this kind of \u201csocial camouflaging\u201d constantly<\/a> in order to seem acceptable to others.<\/p>\n\n

The subtleties of autism in girls mean that they\u2019re diagnosed significantly later<\/a> than boys. In part, this reflects lack of awareness in the professionals<\/a> who typically signpost children to autism services. However, others will be passed over because diagnostic assessment tools are less sensitive to autism in girls<\/a> with cognitive abilities in the normal range.<\/p>\n\n

The price of being overlooked<\/h2>\n\n

Undiagnosed autistic people are often painfully aware of their inability to fit in and to do the things that others do easily. If no one gives you an explanation, you\u2019re left to find one yourself. <\/p>\n\n

I knew as a teenager that I must be fundamentally bad, since I was bullied and had no friends at school. Autistic people I\u2019ve worked with in my research<\/a> have similarly blamed themselves<\/a> for a lifetime of struggling and being abused, pinning these things on personal failings. <\/p>\n\n

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\n Undiagnosed autism can lead to mental health struggles.<\/span>\n Rocketclips, Inc.\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Across research studies, we late-diagnosed autistics are that societal subgroup with a history of academic struggles, employment problems, mental illness and relationship breakdowns. Our self-narratives are ones of inadequacy and failure<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Research has found that autistic girls and women have poorer mental health<\/a> than autistic men. So are people who are diagnosed later in life<\/a> compared to those diagnosed when young. These two facts are almost certainly interrelated. Autistic children who grow up without a diagnosis are unlikely to receive appropriate support<\/a>. What\u2019s more, they\u2019re less likely to be viewed with compassion when they struggle. <\/p>\n\n

Recognition of autism in girls and women may come at a crisis point. For some, this occurs in the pubertal chaos and complex social world of adolescence, where rates of anxiety and depression climb steeply in autistic girls<\/a>. For some, it happens in the world-rocking turmoil of menopause<\/a>, which appears to derail the coping skills and social camouflage that undiagnosed people rely on. <\/p>\n\n

For some, it never happens. Undiagnosed autistic people<\/a> are believed to constitute a high number of suicide deaths.<\/p>\n\n

Further challenges<\/h2>\n\n

Beyond diagnosis, there are other ways that autistic girls and women face greater challenges than boys and men. While women generally suffer higher rates of sexual abuse, this risk is even higher for autistic women<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Autistic women often find their difficulties are poorly understood by employers, and must also contend with gendered pressures<\/a> to perform emotional labour at work \u2013 taking on the unpaid and implicit responsibility to look after the emotions of others \u2013 or face damage to their reputation.<\/p>\n\n

Perhaps unsurprisingly, autistic gender disparities in stress-related illnesses<\/a> and risk of suicide<\/a> are stark. Despite this, autistic women still face greater barriers to accessing help<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s uncertain to what extent these disparities can be traced back to the fundamental fact that autism is poorly understood and under-catered for in women and people of minority sexes and genders. <\/p>\n\n

What we do know is that early diagnosis seems crucial for girls to grow up with positive self-image<\/a> and lower risk of mental illness<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

For we lucky women who got there in the end, a discovered autistic identity can be a life-changing gift<\/a>. Finding ourselves means finding each other, release from self-blame and a new sense of belonging<\/a>.\"The<\/p>\n\n

Rachel Moseley<\/a>, Principle Academic in Psychology, Bournemouth University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dagerotip\/Shutterstock Rachel Moseley, Bournemouth University For many women, adult diagnoses of autism are \u201ca light in the darkness\u201d,…\n","protected":false},"author":614,"featured_media":10159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1013,474,908],"class_list":{"0":"post-10178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-and-body","8":"tag-autism","9":"tag-the-conversation","10":"tag-women","11":"cs-entry","12":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/614"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10179,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10178\/revisions\/10179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}